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When I turned around, Ansin was standing there.
“Oh God! You scared me.”
“Who said you could shower alone?” He smiled.
“You were sleeping.” I suddenly noticed how much worse he looked. The bags under his eyes were darker. His deep olive skin was pale. “Are you okay?”
“Just need some sleep.”
I knew that wasn’t true. He was dying.
Suddenly, the weight of the world and all the worry came crashing down again.
I cupped my hand to his rough cheek. “Isn’t there anything I can do?”
He took my hand and kissed my palm. “You’re doing it.”
“I don’t want you to die.”
“Thank you,” he said.
“But what if I—”
“Whatever you’ve done cannot be undone without endangering Draco. And besides, you’ve given me what I want.”
“You don’t know that I’m going to get pregnant.”
He frowned with a tender look in his eyes. “I mean you, Jeni. I got you.”
I somehow knew he wasn’t talking about the notch in his belt. He’d won me over. No, I couldn’t say I trusted him completely or that I loved him with all my heart, but I did care for him. I desired him. I felt something deep that could become love over time. “Yes, you did.”
He kissed me and turned me around, gently guiding my hands to the tiled wall.
“Again?”
He answered with his body. All I could do was let go and lean into the moment.
After the shower, Ansin made love to me two more times. I didn’t know how he had the stamina, but when I started to rouse the next morning, every muscle in my body was sore.
I stretched with my eyes closed, not entirely ready to confront all the dark things I’d pushed from my mind last night. I’d never see my son again, King was gone, and there’d always be a hole in my heart. Ansin was determined to let me drain his life away in order to keep Draco safe.
How did one move on from this? Maybe the answer was you didn’t. The best I could hope for was to find some solution before it was too late for Ansin.
“Are you hungry?” I asked, looking at my phone on the nightstand. Ten a.m. “Why don’t we order room service.”
I sat up and looked to my side, where Ansin was still asleep, facing away from me.
“Ansin.” I pushed on his shoulder.
He didn’t move.
“Ansin?” I rolled him toward me. He wasn’t breathing. His skin was pale.
My eyes teared, and I covered my mouth. “No…please no.”
He was gone.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
King
I left the hotel in LA, where I had planned to kill both Jeni and Ansin—why not?—but ultimately changed my mind. Ansin was not going to live much longer, thanks to Jeni, and she would live in hell the rest of her days.
Better to let them live out their lives and for me to move on with mine. My death, anyway.
I was determined to take advantage of my weakened state and return immediately to Mia and Arch. How I missed the smell of her hair and the sound of his tiny voice. I knew reconciling with her would not be easy, but I had faith in us—in our love. It had carried me through death, through life, and then some. I trusted in the fact that she knew my heart and soul inside out. She would forgive me once I truly explained the reasons for my deception surrounding Ten Club. She would have to. Because I planned to be by her side for eternity.
First things first: die. Now that the tattoo collar around my neck was inert, I’d determined the most efficient way was to incinerate my body once and for all. With nothing anchoring me to this world, no one could resurrect me. Not curses, not Seers.
My driver headed toward the nearest mortuary. It was three in the morning, usually the time when bodies were cremated—just the sort of thing a person learned when running Ten Club. Body disposal. There, I would pay the caretaker handsomely to do the job.
I watched the lights of LA pass by the window, and in some strange way, it felt like a ceremony. I was about to say goodbye to this world for the last time.
I had seen entire civilizations rise and fall. I’d witnessed the birth of modern law, of books, of the written word as a form of art. I’d watched as people never changed—always greedy, evil, thirsting for power—while also striving to become something greater. I’d witnessed wars, the industrial revolution, man flying to the moon, and the birth of the internet. We humans had changed in so many ways yet remained fundamentally the same. The strong still took from the weak. The weak still believed they could fight back with kindness and faith alone.
I disagreed.
Wishing evil away was as effective as curing an open wound with cow dung—a medieval remedy that left the person with sepsis. To defeat a foe, one had to wield the metaphorical sword and utilize every resource at their disposal—physical, mental, and otherworldly. One had to be ready to play dirty and be cunning.
